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Cóir Date: 25.02.2010 After Fine Gael's dirty laundry was aired in public with the departure of George Lee, the public has finally started to learn what Mr Lee had actually said in the Dáil and elsewhere. As though kept secret by the media and the party, in case the public should discover that not all politicians march in lock-step, what has come to the fore regarding George Lee's economic view are two issues: one, his regard for the family; and, two, his realisation that the EU's rules about government deficit might well stymie Ireland's economic recovery.
As regards the family, Lee not only opposed tax individualisation and cuts in welfare, but also supported the universal child benefit. Commenting on Mr Lee's stances, Cóir spokesman, Richard Greene, said: “It's a pity that more politicians don't speak up like this. The family is the most important unit in society and if it breaks down, the economy is surely going to be negatively impacted. So apart from the social and moral aspects of protecting the family as the centre of Irish society, such action also has huge economic ramifications as well – and George Lee obviously recognised that fact.”
Mr Lee also criticised the heavy-handed approach taken by the EU regarding its demand that Irish government reduce its deficit to 3% of GDP by 2013 and 2014, from where we are today, at around 12%. He contended that, instead of cutting back on spending, the Government must continue to spend to invest in and create job, because, as he said: “You will not recover banking until you get jobs. You will not get anyone buying houses until you get jobs.”
Instead, however, as we are all so painfully aware, the Government cut E4 billion Euro from the budget for this year, and, because of the EU's rules on deficit spending, faces the same type of cuts for the next three or more years. On the issue of EU regulation in this case, Mr Lee told the Dáil in November (Since then the situation has changed slightly with the emergence of Greece's debt problems, though the essence of what he said still remains true): “What Europe is asking us to do has never been asked of any other economy...Jobs should be at the centre of our economic adjustment so that we can have employment, not the long-term consequences of following a blind mantra on cutting everything because someone else says so.”
Cóir spokesman, Richard Greene, had this to say: “Given Mr Lee's prominent status as a celebrity politician, it is peculiar how his Dáil speeches on these matters never made front-page headlines. Perhaps, he had strayed too far off the reservation, and, even though well-liked among his former peers, the media were never going to make it known that the EU were actually behind the terrible cuts being imposed on the Irish people. How could they, when they had been the most vociferous proponents of giving the EU even more power with Lisbon. What has been made quite clear from our current economic woes is that the EU is primarily of, by and for the Big States of Europe.”
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